Scarlet didn’t sleep. The city refused to let her.
Since the broadcast, factions had split like cracked glass—some rising behind the Red Crown, others fleeing into old loyalties or new crimes. The skyline glowed with unrest. Every breath she took tasted of war.
And yet, inside her, something older stirred.
She was no longer just a weapon. She was becoming a symbol.
But symbols attract fire.
Kaydence sat on the floor of a half-burned chapel, watching the candlelight flicker against his gun.
Jasper entered. “Delora’s not hiding. She’s baiting you.”
“I know.”
“You go to her, it’s suicide.”
Kaydence finally looked up. “Then I’ll die with my name in her mouth.”
He stood and holstered his weapon.
“You coming?”
Jasper sighed. “You’re lucky I’m loyal to a fault.”
They vanished into the city fog.
The fiancé’s name was Caelum. No one said it lightly.
He was more myth than man—an empire in exile.
Annora found him in a highrise penthouse, a place he owned but never lived in. When he saw her, bloodied and changed, he didn’t ask why. He simply opened his arms.
“I thought you were dead,” he whispered.
“I am,” she replied. “But I want you to help me bury someone.”
His lips curled. “Scarlet Veil?”
“No. Miro.”
Deep in the catacombs beneath Sector Zero, Miro met with the Archivist.
“You were never meant to see the Red Crown rise,” the Archivist said.
“I’m not here for her,” Miro replied. “I want immunity.”
“In exchange for?”
“I’ll give you Delora Vale.”
The Archivist raised a brow. “Interesting. But we both know Vale doesn’t fall without Scarlet.”
Miro smiled. “I never said I wouldn’t help with both.”
Scarlet stood before the sealed doors of her father’s lab.
Only she could open it.
Lune worked beside her. “You don’t have to go in there.”
“I do. There’s something in there he never wanted anyone to see. Not even me.”
She placed her hand against the scanner.
The door creaked open.
And what lay inside wasn’t a weapon. It was a twin.
A girl in a suspended chamber.
Same eyes. Same face. But untouched by war.
Lune gasped. “Scarlet… who is she?”
Scarlet stepped back, trembling.
“She’s me. Or who I was supposed to be.”
The chamber opened.
The twin opened her eyes.
And smiled.
The chamber hissed open, steam curling around the girl inside.
She stepped barefoot onto the steel floor—identical to Scarlet in face, but her movements were eerie. Precise. Unnerving.
"Seina," she said calmly, eyes locked on Scarlet. "You’ve lived my life."
Lune stepped between them, hand instinctively on her blade. Scarlet gently pushed her aside.
“I don’t even know your name.”
“I don’t have one,” the twin said. “They called me Echo.”
Elsewhere — Caelum Moves
Caelum wasn’t just Annora’s fiancé. He was the heir to a rival syndicate once dismantled by Veil Industries. Now he had a reason to rise again.
He watched the Red Crown’s broadcast on a loop, analyzing every facial tick, every threat Scarlet made.
“She’s good,” he said to his second-in-command. “Too good.”
“What’s the play?”
“We don’t kill her yet.” He smiled. “We let her tear everything down—and then we take the ashes.”
Kaydence found Scarlet on the rooftop of their safehouse, staring at the skyline.
“She looks like you,” he said.
“She is me.”
Kaydence stepped closer. “What if this changes everything? Your legacy. Your mission. Us?”
Scarlet looked at him, soft but tired. “It already has.”
Then she handed him a photo. Of her and Echo—taken only hours ago.
“She remembers everything I’ve forgotten.”
“And?”
“She wants revenge. Not redemption.”
Kaydence lowered the photo. “So, what do you want?”
Scarlet stared at the city.
“Both.”
Miro met Echo in the shadows of the old underground rail.
“You’re not like her,” he said.
“No,” Echo replied. “I’m what she was supposed to be.”
Miro handed her a dossier. Inside: locations. Weak points. People.
“I’m tired of playing backup. Let's end it all.”
Echo smiled. “With pleasure.”
She didn’t shake his hand. She kissed his cheek.
And then whispered, “The crown never needed a queen. It needed a killer.”